In all probability this will be our last studio album
of the twentieth century. Perhaps the next one will be recorded on a
medium small enough to replace a shirt button. Mayhap you will stick the
next Tannahill's album in the parking meter by mistake. Any way you look
at it the recording industry has come a long way since those first cylinders,
not that we were ever involved with them, I hasten to add.
For those of you who like to keep track of these sorts of things this is,
including compilations, our fourteenth album. Of the previous thirteen
releases none, happily, have been recaptured. Indeed, perhaps you are one
of the many people who have collected them all. Conversely, you may have
come across us for the first time and you're not sure whether to buy this or a
few groceries. Buy This! Music is forever, but you'll only be hungry
again tomorrow!
On that philosophical note let us thank all of you for your fantastic support
during the last quarter of a century. We're planning to be around for a
good chunk of the next. Hey, we're just getting started!
Slainte,
The Tannahill Weavers
Edinburgh, June, 1998
The Tannahill Weavers are:
Roy Gullane - guitar, vocals
Phil Smillie - flute, whistles, vocals, bodhran
John Martin - fiddles, vocals
Leslie Wilson - guitar, bouzouki, keyboards, vocals
Duncan J. Nicholson - highland bagpipes, Scottish small pipes, whistles
Epona... Horses were important animals in Celtic society, reflective
of prestige and esteemed for their beauty, speed, intelligence and bravery in
battle. The horse-symbol was associated with the goddess Epona, whose name
is based on the Gaulish word for horse, and who was venerated in the Roman
period all over Europe.
The heartlands of her cult were Gaul and the Rhineland, but she was
worshipped in regions as far apart as Britain, Bulgaria, North Africa, and Rome
itself, where she appears to have been the only Celtic divinity actually honored.
Uniquely for a Celtic goddess, she had her own official festival in the Roman
calendar, celebrated on 18 December. Her attributes, unlike those of many
Celtic deities, seem never to have varied. Her role was that of a
peaceful, beneficent goddess, associated with domestic prosperity and fertility,
but she was nonetheless also revered as a protector of soldiers and their
mounts.
Available as GLCD1193 from Green Linnet
Records.
